Here’s another thing I’ve noticed about the magical experience of Høstfest in Minot (a curse is a kind of magic, right?).

I remarked on this while I was there, and a couple different people agreed that they’d had the same experience.

Minot is upwind from everywhere.

When you drive to Minot (at least for Høstfest), you face a headwind.

When you drive home, you have a headwind again.

It’s always like this. Every year.

I’d say that God hates Scandinavians who live east of Minot, except that I half suspect that people who live west of Minot experience the precise same phenomenon.

I suspect that Minot is in fact a vast living creature, an Avoidant one that takes very long breaths. During the days leading up to Høstfest, it expires. And when the festival is over, it sighs (Scandinavians inhale when they sigh).

I had one of the most intriguing conversations in Norwegian I’d ever had, this year at Høstfest. Continue reading No swords for Nazis →

This is evil. Police in Enugu, Nigeria, found a private hospital where infants were being bred for slavery. “Their babies would be sold for as little as 15,000 naira ($127, £72), the police said. It is suspected the babies were to be sold to traffickers who sell children into forced labour or prostitution.”

The article notes that abortion is illegal in Nigeria, which is a good detail to make for American readers, but I wonder if the reporter isn’t suggesting the slavery problem would be solved by killing the children before birth.

Just to the stir the pot (and use a cliche), what’s your theology on infants and children dying. Do they go to heaven?

Because many of you out there aren’t fortunate enough to share in the riches of Scandinavian culture, I offer the following information out of a profound sense of civic responsibility.

Also because if I didn’t report on my week, I’d have to think of something substantive to write.

On the way out I had the pleasure, once again, of having lunch with Roy Jacobsen of Dispatches From Outland and Writing, Clear and Simple, in Fargo. And on the way home Dale Nelson, who teaches English and Mayville State University, and his wife Dorothea and daughter Lynnea, hosted me for lunch and dinner. Thanks to all of them.

Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota is the largest Scandinavian festival in the United States. People come from all over the country, and indeed from all over the world. The reason for the location is obvious. It’s a central location. Minot is so far from anywhere that it’s just as remote from Minnesota as it is from Scandinavia. Or at least it seems that way. Continue reading Photo essay on Hostfest →

Kudos to Makoto Fujimura’s New Haven Church commission.

Michelle Malkin has images and a full transcript of an SNL skit laughing at the mess congress has led us into: Soros/Sandler Bailout Satire

Pelosi: Let’s not forget, Mr. President, that it was the Democrats that first sounded the alarm about the risky mortgage loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were encouraging and that your party resisted all our efforts to rein them in.

Bush: W-w-w-w-ait. Wasn’t it my administration that warned about the problem six years ago? And it was the Democrats that refused to listen?!

Pelosi: What? Who told you that? That’s crazy. It was completely the other way around.

Frank: Actually. This time, he’s sort of right.

…

Herbert Sandler: My wife and I had a company which aggressively marketed subprime mortgages, and then bundled them into securities to sell to banks such as Wachovia. Today, our portfolio is worth almost nothing — though at one point, it was worth close to $19 billion.

Pelosi: My God. I am so sorry. Were you able to sell it for anything.

Herbert Sandler: Yes, for $24 billion. . . . and thank you, Congressman Frank, as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.

Apparently, the Sandlers are an real couple, not a fabrication, though the numbers appear to be exaggerated.

Compelling song by Derek Webb: A New Law

Back from Hostfest, alive and well and only slightly scathed. I won’t do a big post tonight, because I’m exhausted (my usual state at this point). I’ll just share a picture (there will be more tomorrow).

This is me in our Viking camp, presiding in lordly splendor, backed up by a gorgeous quilted banner that somebody in Minot produced for our exhibit. I’m wearing my brand new Viking tunic, which I got to wear for the first time that day. Unfortunately I had to give it back to the lady in our group who makes these things, because she wants to do some final finishing on it.

Tomorrow: Amusing anecdotes and passive aggression.



Note: In Photobucket this picture is right side up. I can’t figure out how to make it transfer correctly.



Update to note: Apparently it’s all right. I just needed to re-load the page. Never mind.

Erin O’Connor points to an article on academic freedom from the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Academic freedom is no longer the guiding principle of academic employment, but the privilege of the increasingly select, tenured few.”